Chancellor Fariña calls BSA "inspiring" in recent speech

April 17, 2014

Chancellor Fariña and Dr. McKeon

In a recent speech held on April 17th at Cooper Union, Chancellor Fariña again mentioned Broome Street Academy, stating we were an "inspiring" school. Read the full article below and find the original release at Capital.

Chancellor Carmen Fariña gave her most comprehensive feedback yet on this year's controversial state English Language Arts tests during a speech at Cooper Union, addressing the "opt-out" movement and saying she has been in frequent contact with the state education department about ways to improve the test.

Delivering a variation on her 100 days speech from Saturday at a St. John's University event on Wednesday evening, Fariña told the group of education students that the Department of Education has convened a meeting of principals to give recommendations to the state about the tests. She acknowledged that the tests has spurred protest from "some parents with the support of some principals" and said the concerns were focused mostly on the 3rd grade tests.

"We are in constant dialogue with the state education department," she said, adding that "for parents to buy in they must be part of the process."

Fariña glanced at index cards as she spoke, and only briefly read directly from prepared remarks, as she begins to strike a balance from her preferred (but risky) method of speaking without remarks and the monotony, which she clearly disdains, and of reading from a speech written by someone else. She reiterated her support for the Common Core curriculum standards and repeated her key pillars of respect for teachers and collaboration between schools.She also gave some insight into her activity in recent weeks, mentioning a meeting with business leader Kathryn Wylde and the Partnership for NYC to help expand career and technical schools, a legacy of the Bloomberg administration.

Fariña also mentioned a recent visit to the Broome Street Academy, a charter school, which focuses on helping homeless students, which she called one of her most "inspiring" school visits.

She spoke in detail about her experience as an educator, recalling times she had comforted a crying teacher or held 21 parent meetings in a single year.

She also briefly mentioned that she has created a new internal D.O.E. office for guidance counselors as of the last several weeks, and that she is working on a "dream initiative" program to help get students from Title I schools into the city's specialized high schools.

When asked by one student what the greatest accomplishments were of her tenure as chancellor, Fariña said she was most proud of raising morale among teachers.

When asked about her challenges, she said, "Making sure there are no more snow days."